Tests going back to 1998 tell the same story - American students at all levels are seriously deficient in writing skills. Only 3 percent possess advanced or superior abilities when it comes to writing.This is no surprise to a writing instructor. For almost two decades I have seen students coming into my English classes at Allan Hancock College needing a great deal of assistance in everything from basic sentence structure to writing a thesis.Not that they can’t learn. I have witnessed students make enormous improvements in how well they can write in only a semester, sometimes less. One student recently shared with me that he was told by another instructor, Your writing has improved tremendously, while he was still in the process of taking my English 103 class.While success stories like this are heartening, the reality is sobering, as the lack of writing ability is now showing up in the workplace.Employers are encountering job candidates, often with advanced degrees, who cannot write clearly or effectively. As a result, jobs are going unfilled and companies are spending as much as $3 billion per year to bring employees’ writing to an acceptable level.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:42:18 +0000
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